Recognize threat and penalty scams by reading this article and becoming familiar with all the different types of scams and fraud. Knowledge of criminal activity is your first and best defense against scams and fraud.
Criminals are becoming more sophisticated with scams and fraudulent activity. And police authorities around the world are struggling to keep up with the rapid development of online and offline scams. Some scams seem to be innocent and genuine business transactions but result in thousands of people losing considerable sums of money. Usually, the scammers are located in another country making it very difficult for local law enforcement agencies to track these criminals down and prosecute them.
What Are Threat & Penalty Scams?
Criminals disguise a threat or penalty scam to look like it’s coming from a real law enforcement agency or legitimate business. The scammer uses tactics to scare the victim into paying money for a late account, fine or some other reason.
Many people fall victim to these frauds because they genuinely believe they are in trouble with the law. Maybe they believe a utility company will disconnect their essential services such as electricity, gas, water or phone.
How to Recognize Threat & Penalty Scams?
These scams occur by a phone call, phone message, email, Facebook message, postal mail, or any other way to contact you.
The scammers impersonate law enforcement agencies, government departments, banks, utility companies, phone companies, internet service providers or any other large business.
They may inform you that you have an overdue account that needs to be paid immediately or you will incur a penalty. They may send you a fake speeding or parking fine. The scammers may send you a fake court order or police report requesting you pay a fine. We cannot tell you every possible type of scam as the scammers develop new scam techniques every day.
Scammers always create a sense of urgency with their requests. They will instruct you to visit a website and enter your personal information, make a payment or even provide information about another person. They often request payment through unusual methods of payment such as gift cards, store cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrencies.
Any unusual demands or behavior should alert you to a possible scam.
How to Avoid Threat & Penalty Scams?
If you are contacted by a threatening phone call, do not take it seriously. Police and other law enforcement agencies never threaten people over the phone. Hang up the phone to any threatening phone calls.
Utility companies will not immediately disconnect your phone, electricity, gas or water on the first notification of non-payment of an account. By law, they must give you time to respond to the overdue account. Conduct your own research to verify the overdue account.
Law enforcement agencies or utility companies will never demand payment by an unusual payment method. Only pay with credit card, direct debit authority or cash at the retail outlet. Call the business on their registered phone number or visit their retail outlets.
Never respond to emails and text messages demanding payment. Legitimate businesses only send reminders in emails and text messages. You cannot reply to these emails and messages as they are not monitored. You have to respond through the correct channels of communication with your service provider. This is documented on your bills or contract.
Never use any contact details provided by the caller or email. Lookup the organizations contact details from a past invoice, original contract or online search.
Report any suspicious emails, texts or calls to the police or scam watch.
Conclusion
Recognize threat and penalty scams with knowledge.
Your best defense against criminals is knowledge of criminal activity. Please read as much as you can about common scams and frauds. And remember, if something sounds too good to be true it usually is a scam.
Please ensure you have a spam filter on your email, so you don’t encounter most of these stupid and annoying scam emails. Don’t answer your phone to unknown numbers, especially international numbers. Don’t click on links in text messages unless you know why you are receiving the message.
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